Methods and apparatus for teaching have made significant advances over the past generation but until the instant invention there was no way to concisely display, as an educational and informational tool, the relationship of various entities, each to the other, sequence of events experienced by the entities, and their interactions, in a single, generally planar apparatus which does not require reference to textual material to perceive the substance of the display. In particular the present invention relates to apparatus for teaching and displaying various techniques and strategies for playing games of skill, such as chess, checkers, etc., in which each player begins with a predetermined number of pieces arranged in a predetermined configuration. The order and movement of each piece is determined by the players, in sequence.
More particularly, the invention relates to educational and display apparatus for teaching and describing the game of chess, a popular game of international recognition in which each of two players are permitted sixteen pieces, including eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, a queen and a king, each of which may be moved in a uniquely restrictive fashion. The game is played on a board consisting of sixty-four squares and its objective is for one player to capture the king of the other player.
Generally, the moves of a game of chess are defined in standard notation which gives the name of the piece moved and coordinates of the square to which it is moved. For example, P-K3 would indicate that a pawn has been moved to the third rank in the file whose first rank was originally occupied by the king. Often this notation accompanies drawings of a chess board on which are depicted the chess pieces in their positions after a particular move - though the sequence of events which resulted in the pieces being in that position is not shown and can only be appreciated by reading the accompanying notation.